It’s possible that Randy Orton’s back injury didn’t actually happen at last night’s SmackDown tapings in the Falls Count Anywhere Match against Wade Barrett. The match ended when Barrett threw Orton down a flight of stairs.

The scripted spot with Orton going down the stairs makes it appear that Orton had a pre-existing injury. Also, since the December 19th RAW, Orton has been put in positions where he hasn’t had to do a lot of physical work on TV.

As noted before, Sheamus will be taking Orton’s place in SmackDown live events this week against Barrett. There’s talk that one of the RAW brand live event matches will be moved over to the SmackDown tour to help beef up the line-ups.

With a helping hand from John Cena, 40-year-old heavyweight boxer Monte Barrett participated in a week long training camp with WWE’s developmental league Florida Championship Wrestling in late October/early November. As a close friend of Cena’s, Barrett has personal insight on the WWE Superstar. He commented on the hostile reaction Cena receives from grappling fans on a weekly basis to Power Slam.

“We talked about that on [November 14, 2011] and I asked him. A lot of the fans say, “John’s not great, and he’s only got a certain amount of moves,” Barrett says.

“The Rock [left WWE] and John took over. He just told me, “I don’t take it personally, so you don’t either. It’s a job.” Me, I was bothered because the people booed him to death [on Raw]. Rock got a standing ovation. Who knows? John might take a back seat for a while.

“People got tired of Michael Jordan always winning, the Green Bay Packers too. They want different champions, like Lennox Lewis in boxing. It’s our nature to want a changing of the guard. Maybe [Cena] needs to take a back seat, then rise up again in a year or two.”

– Super Luchas started the Jeff Hardy-WWE story today because it’s Innocents’ Day in Latin America, which is like April’s Fools Day here in the United States.

– Details are still sketchy but WWE has reportedly changed creative plans this week for several top stars including Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, R-Truth and WWE Champion CM Punk.

– John Cena was moved to both the 10pm and the 11pm timeslots on this week’s RAW from CM Punk’s hometown of Chicago because Punk’s TV ratings patterns haven’t been good. While many feel that Cena’s feud with Kane is going to lead to a Cena heel turn, it seems highly unlikely that officials will turn a guaranteed ratings draw like Cena.